


Magic Ways

by kazkazooz



Category: Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, F/M, Fluff, Getting Together, Oblivious Peter Parker
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-30
Updated: 2020-01-30
Packaged: 2021-02-24 18:27:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22482430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kazkazooz/pseuds/kazkazooz
Summary: Peter Parker can't seem to get Michelle Jones off his mind. He wonders why.[Spideychelle Hogwarts AU]
Relationships: Michelle Jones/Peter Parker
Comments: 4
Kudos: 40





	Magic Ways

Standing in front of his cauldron filled with orange liquid sizzling and simmering as it stews on top of the fire, Peter absentmindedly stirs the contents of the cauldron and sneakily glances over his shoulder at the table across the room nearest to the store cupboard, where a girl with long, lustrous, wavy-curly brown hair meticulously peruses the pages of her textbook while checking the brewing condition of her potion every so often.

The girl is so focused on her work that Peter doesn’t realize how blatantly obvious that he’s staring, until she raises her head and meets his eyes, face as expressionless as ever yet eyes narrowing suspiciously.

Peter snaps his face back to his own potion, tucking his chin close to his chest and needlessly quickening the stirring motion of his hand. As a heat starting to creep up his neck and spread to his face and ears, his embarrassment almost entirely replaces the former thought that has been occupying his head wholly since the beginning of this class: _curiosity_.

Curiosity about the mysterious girl, Michelle Jones.

In his defense, she was the one that has been stealing glances at him, so frequently that just counting the ones he _did_ notice would amount to double-digit figures. Therefore, it was only reasonable that he would become curious enough to try to find out the reason behind her behavior by discretely observing her during class.

Well, he wasn’t exactly as discreet as he intended to be, but that’s beside the point.

The point is that he wants to know more about her. Unfortunately, there are very limited ways of doing so. As far as Peter knows, nobody really has much knowledge about her—the newest member of his fellow sixth-year Gryffindors who has transferred from Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry just about a year ago.

Over the past year, she didn’t seem to have made many friends with students of either their own house or the others. He has always seen her alone, whether she’s in the common room, nestling and blending into the corner so well that no one else other than him seems to notice her presence, or at the far end of their dining table where half a dozen seats are always empty except for her self-designated seat in which she likes to ensconce herself while burying her nose into yet another book she borrowed from the library and sipping her tea quietly.

So apparently she’s a bit of a loner, which Peter totally understands and respects seeing as he’s not exactly popular and gregarious himself and doesn’t really have any other friend besides Ned.

What he can’t understand, however, is how no one else seems to have taken interest in or tried to approach her. Surely, she can be a little intimidating from time to time. She’s taller than him and her piercing look gives the illusion that she’s capable of reading people’s minds, but he doubts it contributes to other students’ lack of trying to befriend her, nor does he think it covers even a small fraction of the reasons why he has found himself trapped within this obsession with solving the _great mystery_ that is Michelle Jones.

No, not _obsession_ . That can’t be the right word. It’s just the same deeply ingrained compulsion of his that made Peter stand up for Ned when he was bullied by Flash back in their first year that is doing all the work here—his _hero complex_ , according to his best friend. He used to be unwilling to acknowledge it, but now he would much rather blame his eagerness to get close to her on this complex that he allegedly has.

Except Michelle isn’t asking for help since she doesn’t need any. She’s at the top of most of her classes, at least the ones she shares with him. However, in all fairness, Peter isn’t too bad himself, either. He remains the best student of their year in Potions and Defence Against the Dark Arts, although he only wins by a tiny bit, and that’s about all the edge he has over her.

She isn’t even looking for a friend by the looks of it. Peter has tried to show his desire to befriend her by making small talk several times, but she always answers in short sentences, keeping her face as blank as his parchment when he’s too preoccupied with coming up with a better plan to spare any thoughts for his homework due the next day.

What, Then, can possibly be the reason that he’s trying so hard to approach her, going as far as frequenting the library more often just so he can watch her reading behind the shelves, or slowly seating himself closer and closer to her at the dining table in the attempt to get her used to his presence?

“Five more minutes, students.” Professor Harrington announces in front of the class.

Everyone hurries up their movement, filling the dungeon with more rustling noises in addition to the cloudy steam and the blended smells coming from every cauldron. Since Professor Harrington did not tell them to brew one specific potion for today’s class, but rather a ‘surprise’ for him, everyone can choose freely regarding which potion to make.

Peter peers into his cauldron and examines the unfinished potion: _Euphoria_. He still needs to add some wormwood so the potion will turn into its characteristic sunshine yellow.

Skimming through the surface of his messy table, Peter realizes he forgot to pick up the wormwood from the cupboard an hour and a half ago. He hurries off to the store cupboard to find the ingredient he needs to finish his potion perfectly.

A mix of various kinds of aroma fills up his nostrils when he passes Michelle’s table. He has successfully suppressed his urge to look at her, but the scent is still pretty noticeable from where he fumbles inside the cupboard and searches for what he needs.

Smells like… _library_ , a little woody, musty and smoky. But it also has hints of assorted herbs and an inky scent, he reckons.

 _What potion is she making?_ For all his expertise in the subject, Peter can’t think of a potion that would produce such odor.

On his way back to his table, Peter takes a peek into her cauldron as casually as he could manage and sees spiraling steam rising from the mother-of-pearl sheen surface of the liquid.

He immediately recognizes it. It’s _Amortentia_ , also known as the most powerful love potion in the entire world.

Even just from the brief glance, he can tell that she did an amazing job. No surprise there, since she always does.

Her choice, on the other hand, has gotten him in deep thought once again.

It _is_ one of the potions they’ll learn to make in the N.E.W.T. course, but so are a couple other potions like Veritaserum or the Draught of Living Death.

 _Maybe she’s just particularly good at making Amortentia._ Peter tries to convince himself as he stirs his potion after adding the last ingredient. The little whispering voice at the back of his mind suggesting other less desirable alternatives gets pushed out of his mind momentarily.

Once the time’s up, Professor Harrington begins to inspect each students’ cauldron in turn. He nods approvingly and says “Very well done, Peter.” while sniffing the sweet scent and giving a stir to his potion.

Then he slowly makes his way to Michelle’s cauldron. Peter stares intently at the pair of them as Professor Harrington wipes the corner of his eye and sniffles. Peter thinks he hears Harrington say something like “reminds me of my wife” and “she left me five years ago”, to which Michelle only nods sympathetically in response.

The students start tidying up their tables and kits afterwards. Peter empties his cauldron after sampling a flagon of his potion with his name labeled on for testing and stashes away his copy of _Advanced Potion-Making_ into his bag, all the while struggling to keep his mind free of thoughts on a certain classmate of his, who has once more caught his attention out of the corner of his eye.

Michelle’s digging inside her backpack somewhat perturbedly. Peter can’t help but stare, curious.

Something sparkly that she fishes out from her bag into her fist reflects a ray of light directly into his eyes. He squints at her with the utmost attentiveness, watching as she grabs the handle of her flagon with one hand and brings her other hand which holds the mysterious object closer to it.

At that moment, as though she has sensed his gaze, her head swivels around, now facing him. Being caught red-handedly again, Peter flushes red at once and doesn’t dare to let his gaze linger so much as a second longer, starting for the door hastily and leaving the dungeon without one more glance.

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a comment to let me know what you think and thank you for reading!  
> You can find me on tumblr: [@kazkazoozoo](https://kazkazoozoo.tumblr.com/)


End file.
